A major hillclimb may have an entry of more than 150 drivers, but the event is usually a qualifying round of more than one competition, and some drivers (especially drivers of less powerful cars) will not be entered for the British Championship itself. Those who are, and who record a time in the top twelve of all those eligible, compete in a "run-off" at the end of each set of class run (there are two such sets of class runs at each event). In a run-off, drivers tackle the hill in reverse order of their qualifying times, although where two drivers share a car, the slower qualifier competes at the start of the run-off session. The person who sets the fastest time receives 10 British Championship points, the second-fastest driver nine, and so on down to the tenth-placed driver, who gets one. The 11th and 12th-placed drivers, and any who fail to complete the course, receive no points. An extra point is given to any driver in the run-off who breaks the outright hill record as it stood at the beginning of the day.
As of 2022 there are 30 runoffs, but drivers can only count their 24 best results towards their final points total. In 2004, Adam Fleetwood achieved the unprecedented feat of winning 28 out of 34 rounds, and so had to drop all his non-win points. Even so, he won the championship by a huge margin: before taking account of his dropped scores, he had racked up 318 points, with the runner-up, 1997 champion Roger Moran, a long way behind on 176 points.
History
The early days
The first climb of the inaugural series was staged at Bo'ness, near Linlithgow, Scotland on 17 May 1947. It was one of five events in that year's championship, the other climbs being held at Bouley Bay, Craigantlet, Prescott and Shelsley Walsh. All but Bo'ness still host rounds of the BHC. The inaugural championship, as well as the 1948 title, went to Raymond Mays, who proved he was still the force to be reckoned with that he had been before World War II. Sydney Allard won the title in 1949 in the self-built Steyr-Allard.
The 1950s
Although the 1950 championship went to Alfa Romeo driver Dennis Poore, from then on every title of the decade was to be won by a driver who had spent most or all of the year behind the wheel of a Cooper with a JAP engine. Ken Wharton started the trend, and became the only man to win four successive BHC titles. In the mid-Fifties there were three successive titles for the near-legendary Tony Marsh, a man who would still be competing at the highest level of hillclimbing as the 20th century closed. And finally, another hat-trick of championships went to David Boshier-Jones.
The decade was also touched by tragedy, when Bill Sleeman was killed at Bouley Bay, Jersey in 1955.
The final round of the decade was held at Stapleford Aerodrome on 11 October 1959, an event won by David Good in a Cooper-J.A.P. 1,100 c.c. [9]
The 1960s
Although the 1960s opened as the Fifties had ended, with Boshier-Jones taking the honours in his Cooper-JAP, the decade was to see a marked change in hillclimbing. One notable feature of 1960s climbing was the appearance of four-wheel drive, with several of the decade's championships being won by drivers in such cars, including two for Peter Westbury.
Mike Gray became the second driver to be killed at a BHC round when he died at Barbon in 1964.
The 1970s
The Seventies saw two notable firsts: Roy Lane's maiden championship in 1975, and the first of 18 titles in the space of 22 years for Pilbeam drivers when Alister Douglas-Osborn took the honours in 1977.
The 1980s
This decade also saw the first championship to be won by a Gould driver, when Chris Cramer took the title in 1985. However, it was to be the late 1990s before the Pilbeam near-stranglehold on the BHC would be broken for any length of time.
The 1990s
The 1990s continued and even intensified Pilbeam's dominance of the sport, with the first eight championships of the decade being won by a driver in one of the marque's cars. By the time Roger Moran clinched the title in 1997, Pilbeam drivers had won 18 of the 22 championships since 1977, a dominance rivalled only by the Cooper years of the 1950s and early 1960s.
However, change was afoot, and the 1998 championship went to a Gould driver, David Grace. The future CEO of Rockingham Motor Speedway stamped his authority on the championship with a hat-trick of titles as the 20th century closed. As of 2004, every champion since had been behind the wheel of a Gould.
The hillclimb world was shocked in 1995 by the death of one of its leading lights, when Mark Colton was killed in practice at Craigantlet. He thus became only the third driver to lose his life in the history of the BHC.
A new century
The start of the 21st century saw a "changing of the guard" in the BHC, as young drivers in lightweight cars made their presence felt at the highest level. Graeme Wight Jr dominated in 2001, and in June he broke the outright record at Shelsley Walsh that had stood for nine years. Almost a year later he became the first driver to break the 25-second barrier at the track, winning a prize of £1,000.
The 2001 season was severely disrupted by the foot and mouth crisis that year, which caused the postponement of some rounds of the series, though only one climb - at Barbon - was actually cancelled entirely, and co-operation between event organisers and local landowners meant that spectators continued to be admitted to the meetings, albeit with precautions such as the disinfecting of cars entering the car parks.
A little later in the decade, once Adam Fleetwood had proved that he could translate his exploits in smaller cars to the top class, Wight Jr began to come under intense pressure, and by 2004 Fleetwood usually had the better of their battles. That season's championship was robbed of a classic battle for the title when Wight Jr pulled out in June to wait for the arrival of a new car - this had still not been driven in anger by the end of the year. However, crowds around the country could console themselves by watching a true master of the hills at work. Fleetwood won all but six of the year's 34 BHC rounds, breaking hill records for fun - and in turn became the first person to climb Shelsley in under 24 seconds.
Fleetwood's announcement in April 2005 that other commitments would prevent his defending his title meant once again that the two most successful drivers of the 2000s would not go head-to-head, and the stage seemed set for Wight Jr to regain his crown, although his new V10 Predator proved unreliable, allowing the impressive Martin Groves to open up a lead at the top of the points table; Groves had the championship wrapped up by early August. With Wight Jr still nowhere to be seen, Groves retained the title in 2006, although he had to wait a month longer than in the previous year thanks to a spirited challenge from Scott Moran. Groves again held off Moran's charge in 2007 to complete a hat-trick of titles, but in 2008 Moran took his first championship win, retaining his title in 2009.
Moran has since won a further five titles, and his Gould GR61X (by far the most successful car in the history of the championship, with over 170 run-off wins) has won a total of seven. After several seasons in a supercharged Suzuki Hayabusa-engined DJ Firehawk, Alex Summers co-drove the GR61X with Moran and became champion in it at his first attempt.
Pirelli developed a new tyre for British hillclimbing in 2019, [10] giving Avon its first rival in the 21st century. This forced Avon to respond by introducing its new Hillclimb GT Super Soft Compound tyre on 4 June 2020. [11] Several drivers made the switch, including that year's Champion Wallace Menzies. Driving a Gould GR59 [12] with a 3.3-litre V8 engine derived from the Cosworth XD, Menzies made it mathematically impossible for anyone to catch him after Round 27 (of 34) at Gurston Down on 25 August 2019. He became only the second Scottish driver to win the title after Graeme Wight Jr.
Since 1998, the only non-Gould driver to win the championship has been Trevor Willis, who did so in 2012 with his OMS 25, a less powerful but lighter car with a V8 engine derived from two Hayabusa units, and again in 2017 and 2018 with a similar but updated OMS 28.
2020 cancellation
Restrictions brought into force during the COVID-19 pandemic made it impossible to run events in the early part of 2020. Attempts were then made to organise a 'foreshortened' championship with rounds at five venues held over seven weekends starting in August. On 12 June, however, the Bugatti Owners' Club announced that, while it intended to reintroduce events at Prescott, it would not host a British championship event that season. [13] This prompted the cancellation of the 2020 championship and an announcement that the organisers would now focus on the 2021 season. [14]
Toby William John Moody is a British sports commentator focused on motor racing. He was for many years the worldwide voice of the MotoGP series on Eurosport TV, and in 2012, lead commentator on the British Touring Car Championship for ITV4. In 2014 he will commentate for ITV4 on the British Superbike Championship.
Hillclimbing, also known as hill climbing, speed hillclimbing, or speed hill climbing, is a branch of motorsport in which drivers compete against the clock to complete an uphill course. It is one of the oldest forms of motorsport, since the first known hillclimb at La Turbie near Nice, France, took place as long ago as 31 January 1897. The hillclimb held at Shelsley Walsh, in Worcestershire, England, is the world's oldest continuously staged motorsport event still staged on its original course, having been first run in 1905.
Anthony ErnestMarsh was a British racing driver from Stourbridge, England. His Formula One career was short and unsuccessful, but he enjoyed great success in hillclimbing, winning the British Hill Climb Championship on a record six occasions.
Adam Fleetwood is a British racing driver. He won the British Hillclimb Championship in both 2003 and 2004 driving a Gould GR55, and in the latter year won an unprecedented 28 of the 34 rounds of the series. In the process he broke all but one outright hill records, and became the first driver to complete the Shelsley Walsh course in under 24 seconds. However, his main rival, Graeme Wight Jr, did not compete at all in the second half of the 2004 season. As he was awaiting completion of a new car, which did not become available by the end of the season.
Roy Lane was a British racing driver. He is best known for his great success in hillclimbing, having won the British Hillclimb Championship on four occasions in a career spanning more than three decades. Lane won 90 individual rounds of the championship, a record equaled by Martin Groves in July 2009.
Graeme Wight Jr. is a Scottish racing driver, best known for his success in hillclimbing, where he has won two British championships.
Roger Dennistoun Poore was a British racing driver, financier and entrepreneur. He became chairman of Norton Villiers Triumph (NVT) during the final years of the old British motorcycle industry.
Joseph Gibson Fry was a British racing driver and distant member of the Fry's Chocolate family. He became the primary driver for the highly successful Shelsley Special "Freikaiserwagen", created by his cousin David Fry and Hugh Dunsterville, with help from Dick Caesar. The original car was built in Bristol in 1936 and featured an Anzani engine which was replaced in 1937 by a Blackburne engine. Joe set a number of hill records during the late 1930s including an unofficial outright record at Prescott when he climbed in 47.62 seconds in the 1,100 c.c. Freikaiserwagen, on 27 August 1938. At the outbreak of World War Two he held both the blown and unblown 1,100 c.c. records at Shelsley Walsh Hill Climb in 41.52 and 42.58 seconds respectively.
Martin Groves is a British hillclimb driver, who won the British Hill Climb Championship in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2010. With older cars he had won five rounds of the BHCC between 2001 and 2004, but in 2005 he was exceptionally quick in his new Gould GR55B, clinching the championship at Craigantlet in early August having finished first or second in every one of the 28 BHCC rounds up to that point. He retained the title in 2006, after fending off a strong challenge from Scott Moran.
The Shelsley Walsh Speed Hill Climb is a hillclimb in Shelsley Walsh, Worcestershire, England, organised by the Midland Automobile Club (MAC). It is one of the oldest motorsport events in the world, and is the oldest to have been staged continuously on its original course, first having been run in 1905. On that first occasion, the course was 992 yards in length, but in 1907 it was standardised at 1000 yards, the length it remains today.
Prescott Speed Hill Climb is a hillclimb in Gloucestershire, England. The course used for most events is 1,128 yards (1,031 m) in length, and the hill record is held by Wallace Menzies who took the outright hill record in a Gould GR59M single seater with a time of 34.65 seconds on Sunday 5 September 2021. The track was extended in 1960 to form the present Long Course. There is also a "Short Course" of 880 yards (804.7 m), now used only by meetings organised by the Vintage Sports-Car Club.
Scott Moran is a British hillclimb driver, based in Ludlow, Shropshire. Scott Moran has won the British Hill Climb Championship six times driving the Gould GR61X he shares with his father, 1997 British Champion Roger Moran. For some years Scott was the junior partner, but in 2006 he finished ahead in the British Championship standings for the first time, coming second with Roger third. In 2007 he finished second to Martin Groves and in 2008 sealed the championship at Gurston Down.
Hillclimbing in Great Britain differs from the style of hillclimb motorsport events staged in many other parts of the world, in that courses are generally short — mostly under one mile (1.6 km) in length — and this means that cars and drivers do not generally cross between British events and the longer hillclimbs found in many other parts of Europe.
Barbon Hillclimb is a hillclimb held near Kirkby Lonsdale, Cumbria, north-west England. The event is held on the Barbon Manor estate with the course ordinarily being used as a driveway to Barbon Manor, a Victorian shooting lodge.. The course is 738 yards in length, making it the shortest of the British Hill Climb Championship tracks outside the Channel Islands. Since 2013, the car events have been promoted by Liverpool Motor Club in addition to their popular Sprints at Aintree.
Craigantlet Hillclimb, a speed event organised by the Ulster Automobile Club, was first held in 1913. It is the only such venue in Northern Ireland to host a round of the British Hill Climb Championship, which started in 1947.
Gould Racing is a British motorsport company, specialising in racing car manufacture and engineering. The company is run by David Gould, and is based in Newbury, Berkshire, England.
Bo'ness Hill Climb is a hillclimbing course on the Kinneil Estate (site of the historic Kinneil House near Bo'ness, Scotland. It is sometimes referred to as Kinneil Hill Climb. Opening in 1932, it was Scotland's first purpose-built motorsport venue.
David Good is a former British Hill Climb Champion. In 1961 he won the qualifying rounds at Westbrook Hay and Wiscombe Park, driving a Cooper-JAP Mk 8, and clinched the title with a third place at Prescott in September. He finished third in the Championship in 1957 and 1958, being runner-up in 1959, winning the final round at Stapleford.
Michael Roy Pilbeam is a British motorsport designer and engineer known for his work with BRM, Lotus, Surtees and his own company, Pilbeam Racing Designs. An early design was the experimental four wheel drive Formula One BRM P67 of 1964. As of 2014, Pilbeam's company continued to produce hillclimb cars and sports prototype chassis for endurance racing.
The 2021 British Hillclimb Championship presented by Avon Tyres is the 74th running of the series, which began in 1947. In normal circumstances it would have been the 75th, but the 2020 season was cancelled due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Matthew Ryder